Lottie has met someone. Caroline really IS someone. There’s a deep sense of passion, compassion and affection. And Lottie just spent a night with her. So it’s only a matter of time, right? Lottie wakes-up in bed alone and so naturally Caroline is going to be gone, right? She’s going to be...in the kitchen making breakfast? Things are going to get blissfully strange in Snotgirl #16. Writer Bryan Lee O’Malley continues a fun indie comedy romance with artist Leslie Hung. Color comes to the page courtesy of Rachel Cohen. It’s a fun change of pace for the series as Lottie actually kind of finds her almost comfortable enough to totally fall in love with the perfect girl.

And the perfect girl is actually burning breakfast in the kitchen. So it’s not totally perfect, but they’re able to get breakfast later. And then things get really intimate between the two of them as they’re spending lots of time together and genuinely enjoying each other’s company. Things get a little weird, though. Things get particularly weird when Lottie and Caroline end up in the vicinity of Hater’s Brunch. It’s not going to be easy to fall into her normal routine. And what is Lottie’s mom doing ANYWHERE in the vicinity of Hater’s Brunch? Lottie’s NOT ready to let her mom know that she’s dating a girl.

O’Malley dives right into the early stages of a very cute romantic relationship between a couple of people who are getting along QUITE well. This can be a difficult thing to bring to the page in a way that still manages to be charming. O’Malley nails it. The comedy is warm and witty without ever approaching any kind of intimidating level of brilliance. It doesn’t seem at all unattainable. It’s all a perfectly comfortable kind of success. It’s all a bit strange, but ti fits together on the page so well. The subplots around the edges of the central romance feel like a bit too much of a departure from the central plot, but on the whole, this is all very well-executed.

Hung’s manga-inspired art falls into a cozy, little hug of an embrace with O’Malley’s script that feels perfectly at home with it. The fusion of the art and the script feels so perfectly in tune with the romance that’s being developed between Lottie and Caroline. It’s a very well-executed series of moments that all feel more or less perfectly comfortable on the page. All of the art fits together on the page quite well as well in cozy layout after cozy layout. The color embraces Hung’s visuals with a light and tender touch that feels suitably playfulll in places. 

And then there’s the foreshadowing. Maybe everything’s just a little TOO imperfectly perfect to last. Something is definitely going to fall out of place with the next issue. (It HAS to do that, doesn’t it? It can’t just...keep going like this, can it?) Time will tell. And the next issue will be a good indicator if things really ARE going in the direction of things working on some level. It’s a bit strange, but it’s all coming together.

Grade: A